This article is about the amount of damage Kirby and others can sustain in the games. For the heart-shaped item that increases Kirby's maximum health bar in certain games, seeVitality. For the skill that Magolor can level up to gain more hit points inMagolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler, seeMagolor's Magical Skills#Health.

Health (also referred to asHP,Stamina,Life orVitality) refers to the amount ofdamageKirby or another entity can sustain before being defeated or otherwise losing. The concept of health has been in the series sinceits first iteration and has recurred in nearly every game since then. It usually appears on the top or the bottom of the screen on theHeads-up display.

Health by entity[edit]

Kirby and other playable characters[edit]

In early games in the series, Kirby had distinct bars of health, and anything that dealt him damage (and was not immediately fatal) took exactly one point away. The only exception wereGordos, which dealt a much more painful three bars of damage inKirby's Dream Land, andDark Mind's (second form) laser attack, which can deal 2 units of damage. As such, some restorative items tended to also heal in these discrete fashions, withEnergy Drinks restoring a small number of bars, andMaxim Tomatoes restoring all of them.

In later games, starting withKirby Super Star, and most games since then, Kirby and his allies' health is represented not as discrete bars, but as one continuous bar. In addition, damage sources could vary in severity, with some hits dealing minor damage, taking only a small portion away, and others dealing a comparatively large amount of damage. In addition, smallerFood items such as cherries appear in these titles, healing a small amount of health.

In most games in the series, a high-pitched beeping noise plays when Kirby reaches a significantly low threshold to his health, warning the player of the situation. In later games, such asKirby's Return to Dream Land, having sufficiently low health also causes Kirby or his friends to adopt an exhausted look when standing still, and their portraits are shown to sweat and exhibit sad or tired expressions. InKirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby gets a bandage on his head if he has one health point remaining.

Some titles, includingKirby & The Amazing Mirror, allow Kirby to extend his maximum health by collecting special items in the levels. Other titles haveExtra Modes which reduce Kirby's maximum health to increase the challenge.

InSuper Kirby Clash, a member of Team Kirby that's at full health will deal slightly more damage to enemies when attacking them. Attacks performed under this circumstance are calledFull-Strength Attacks and are indicated by the health bar at the bottom of the screen repeatedly flashing.

InKirby and the Forgotten Land, if Kirby is at full health and has not taken any damage for a certain amount of time, his health bar will temporarily disappear from theHUD until he takes damage.

The following table lists the health values of playable characters in some titles:

Standard enemies[edit]

Apart from a select few games in the series, enemies' health is not shown to the player. However, each enemy has a specific amount of health, just like Kirby or a boss, and the enemy is defeated when its health reaches zero. Most enemies have little constitution, but large or hardy foes likeRocky andDegout may take several hits to defeat.

Bosses and mid-bosses[edit]

In most every game in the series when a boss or mid-boss is encountered, its health is displayed to the player on the HUD, often overlapping a previous display to avoid taking up extra space on the screen. Despite earlier bosses showing their health as discrete units, it may in fact take several hits to deplete one unit of their health, as is the case with the bossKabula. It is also sometimes the case that the same attack may appear to deal differing amounts of damage at different times; this is because the boss's health is internally stored as a higher number than the game can display, so the visual units represent a fraction of their health rounded to the nearest whole. InKirby Star Allies andKirby and the Forgotten Land, mid-bosses have smaller health bar graphics compared to other bosses.

Bosses in particular typically have very high health, and will take numerous hits to defeat. Some of them may not necessarily be defeated when their health bar is emptied, instead taking on a new form or phase and displaying a new bar to drain. Starting inKirby's Return to Dream Land, the majority of bosses have at least two phases split across a single health bar. Such cases will often have bosses transition to the next phase via an animation that shows them getting furious. During this time, bosses are invincible to all damage (inKirby's Return to Dream Land,Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, theTeam Kirby Clash series, andKirby Fighters 2) or take significantly reduced damage (inKirby: Triple Deluxe,Kirby: Planet Robobot,Kirby Star Allies, andKirby and the Forgotten Land). Mid-bosses also have this trait inKirby and the Forgotten Land.

Most games (with a few exceptions) that featuremultiplayer cause bosses and mid-bosses to have more health compared to fighting them in single-player (Kirby Super Star,Kirby & The Amazing Mirror andKirby Super Star Ultra) or reduce each player characters' attack power (Kirby's Dream Land 3 and all games sinceKirby's Return to Dream Land), likely to encourage players to work together in order to defeat them quickly. More specific info on a per-game basis is listed in the "Multiplayer modifier" section below.

FromKirby's Return to Dream Land onward, bosses almost always have less health when fought inThe Arena,The True Arena,The Ultimate Choice and theColosseum, usually multiplied by 0.75.

Multiplayer modifier[edit]

Kirby Super Star /Kirby Super Star Ultra[edit]

InKirby Super Star andKirby Super Star Ultra, bosses will have their health multiplied by 1.3 if ahelper is present before the boss health bar loads.

Kirby's Dream Land 3[edit]

InKirby's Dream Land 3, damage taken by bosses will be multiplied by 0.8 ifGooey is present.

Kirby & The Amazing Mirror[edit]

InKirby & The Amazing Mirror, mid-bosses and bosses have different HP values depending on the number of players in a game session, no matter if said players are present for the battle or not. Unlike other games in the series, there is no set value the HP or damage is multiplied by, and even some bosses with the same HP value for one player may have different values for more players.^[2] The following is a table for each mid-boss and boss:

Kirby's Return to Dream Land /Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe[edit]

InKirby's Return to Dream Land andKirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, bosses will take lessdamage if more friends are fighting, multiplied by a certain amount depending on how many players are present during the battle.

Kirby Star Allies[edit]

InKirby Star Allies, bosses will take lessdamage if more friends are fighting, multiplied by a certain amount depending on how many players are present during the battle. The multipliers differ depending on the mode.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land[edit]

InKirby and the Forgotten Land, damage taken by bosses will be multiplied by 0.6 ifBandana Waddle Dee is present.^[1]

Handicap after losing to bosses[edit]

Starting inKirby: Triple Deluxe and persisting in every main series game since then alongside spin-offs such asKirby Fighters Deluxe andKirby Fighters 2, every time Player 1 loses against a mid-boss or boss, the boss's maximum health decreases and their cool-down between attacks becomes longer to lower the difficulty. This handicap will be kept, even after continuing from a Game Over, until the boss is beaten or the player quits the game.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe toKirby Fighters 2[edit]

Kirby and the Forgotten Land[edit]

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe[edit]

InKirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, if Helper Magolor is enabled, the boss HP is calculated starting from the 2 losses multiplier (91%).

Other[edit]

Some other entities in the series have health, such asitems andAir Ride machines. InKirby Air Ride andKirby Air Riders, each machine has a set amount of HP, which can be drained or augmented in modes such asCity Trial. When a machine's HP reaches zero, it explodes, which has various consequences depending on the mode being played.

Trivia[edit]

• So far, there are two games in theKirby series which do not employ health for Kirby under any circumstance. The first isKirby's Epic Yarn, as here, getting hit or falling in apit simply results in losing beads. The second isKirby's Dream Buffet, as Kirby merely gets bumped away by anything that hits him, and falling out of bounds (or getting Screen KO'd byInvincible Candy) will only result in lost time and/or loststrawberries in Battle Royale stages.
• When Meta Knight is defeated inMeta Knightmare,Kirby: Canvas Curse, andMeta Knightmare Ultra, only his mask is left behind, and it falls off stage.
  • Similarly, when Dark Meta Knight is defeated inKirby Star Allies and is the only non-CPU player, he shatters like glass, a reference to how he has been destroyed in previous titles.
• InKirby: Triple Deluxe, whenHypernova Kirby inhalesFlowery Woods andFlowered Sectonia, their health meters also peel off, and fly into Kirby's mouth. This is breaking thefourth wall as intended to emphasize how strong the attack is and the 3D stereoscopic screen of the Nintendo 3DS.
• So far, the boss with the most health inKirby series history isKing D-Mind's Revenge fromSuper Kirby Clash, with 3,039,600 HP. Note that theKirby Clash series uses a different health and damage system from the main series, with even the weakest boss,Gigant Edge in the originalTeam Kirby Clash, having 12,000 HP.
  • The bosses with the most health in any single non-shoot 'em up battle from the main series so far areThe Three Mage-Sisters fromKirby Star Allies andChaos Elfilis' first form fromKirby and the Forgotten Land, with 3,400 HP each (for scale, aStar Bullet does 78damage in the former game where the Mage-Sisters are fought as a group, while a Star Bullet does 80damage in the latter game).
  • The boss with the most health in any single shoot 'em up battle from the main series isZero fromKirby's Dream Land 3, with 4,080 HP (for scale, theLove-Love Stick does 32 damage).

Gallery[edit]

• 
  Kirby's health bar and amid-boss's health bar at the bottom of the screen inKirby: Nightmare in Dream Land.
• 
  Kirby's health bar inKirby: Triple Deluxe
• 
  Dedede's health bar inDededetour
• 
  Kirby's health bar with theSmash Bros. ability inKirby: Planet Robobot

Names in other languages[edit]

References

• Gameplay mechanics

• Articles which list French names
• Articles which list German names
• Articles which list Spanish names